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Monday, 23 September 2013

I know what you’re thinking. Is this food
blogger a bag lady in disguise? Did she scatter birdseeds all over a cake that
was served to her vertebrate guests? Yes, it’s true; the Central Park Pigeon
Lady from Home Alone 2 has a strong desire for baked goods.

This is a mildly spiced zucchini (and I’m
only calling it that because how fugly does courgette sound/look/read next to
zucchini? Plus I love Italian food, so I think this grants me access to their
terminology) cake studded with chunks of pistachio and the dust that
accumulated from chopping said chunks, mixed with ground almonds.

If, for some reason, you let me blindfold
you and then force-fed you a forkful of this alongside a forkful of carrot cake, my guess is that you would think you were eating from the same slice of
cake.

The same slice of carrot cake.

After several bites, I was still unable to
trace any zucchini flavour with my fag ash taste buds. I think that’s the
beauty of zucchini, it adds a slight health factor (Vitamin A) to your afternoon tea accompaniment(before you attack it with frosting) yet
gracefully conceals itself behind competitive flavours. In this case: the all
spice.

This cake is made for carrot cake
enthusiasts and anyone whose willing to try something a little odd, albeit
refreshing.

Note: To de-skin pistachios, immerse them in boiling hot water and leave to stand for half an hour. The skins will slide off, it will feel like a hot knife in butter. You will enjoy the next hour removing the skins with your fingers. The Method

Make the cakes. Line two 6 inch tins with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Whisk oil, sugar, egg and vanilla with electric whisk until thick and pale in colour. Stir in both nuts, zucchini, salt and all spice. Sift over the flours and baking soda and whisk until just combined. Pour the mixture evenly into both tins. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. The cakes will still be a little moist - they're baked through if they spring back when you touch them. Leave to cool in the tins for 20 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting and then try to make the cake look like it came out of a semi pro's kitchen. Beat butter and icing sugar for 5 minutes until very pale and fluffy. Gradually add cream cheese whilst beating, followed by lime juice and zest. Continue to beat until you have an off white cloud of frosting. If its not thick enough, add a teaspoon of cornflour. If its still not thick enough, add more icing sugar. And then read this post if its still not thick enough.

Place a 6 inch piece of cardboard underneath one of the cakes and place that on top of a turntable, or on a plate. Scoop 3 tablespoons of icing on top of the cake and evenly spread across the whole top. Place 2nd cake on top of icing. Scoop 4 tablespoons of icing on top and evenly spread across the top, this time, let the icing fall to the sides of the cake. Coat all of the sides. Place cake in the freezer for 20 minutes. Ice the cake again with the remaining icing. Scatter pistachios over the top. The cake will keep for 3 days.

I agree that layer cakes are kind of the worst to photograph--why so tall and unwieldy, cakes?! But I disagree that these photos are lacking--they're gorgeous! I'm a weirdo who loves zucchini (and pistachios!) in my desserts, so these are right up my alley.

What BEAUTIFUL pictures.... I don't even like pistachios or zucchini but your photographs are so pretty and the cake is styled so perfectly, I WANT THIS IN MY FACE.Your frosting skills are perfect, I don't know what you're talking about ;)

I love how you have called yourself a weirdo for liking fruit & nut in your dessert! haaaaa. they are the WORST. and do you know whats the worst part about it? whenyou *think* you have taken an okay picture, and then on photoshop you realise that its wonky and theres no way to make it better! ergh.

Haha thank you! I was so tempted to use salted pistachios for this cake, I just thought - how terrible must pistachios taste without salt?! But i think the sweetness from the frosting makes up for the lack of salt. Next a pistachio zucchini salad!...(not)

This cake is just gorgeous! The frosting and the nuts on top are perfectly done. Glad I found you and excited to keep following! :) (Also, in re: the comments on taking bad photos, YES!!!! Like when I take a picture on my camera and it looks fine on the tiny screen, then on the computer suddenly I realize the focus is wrong or it's blurry or whatever else and then I just feel like throwing things everywhere.)

Thank you! Excited to have you here :) I know that feeling all too well, I really wish I had the brains to connect my camera to laptop so I can use the laptop screen as the viewfinder! This whole photography thing is so frustrating. Who would have thought?!